Jun 16, 2011
\nBahrain women arrested in sit-in released, says UN<\/p>\n
UNITED NATIONS – THREE young women arrested by Bahraini police while holding a sit-in protest on Wednesday at the UN offices in Manama have been released, the United Nations said.<\/p>\n
‘The United Nations Development Programme in New York has been advised that three women who conducted a peaceful protest at the organisation’s offices in the capital Manama have been released by police and that charges will not be pressed,’ the UNDP said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It said the UNDP had made ‘urgent representation to Bahrain’s authorities to release the three women,’ and that the UN agency has ‘launched a formal investigation into how the incident at its office was handled’.<\/p>\n
The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights had said on its website that the women, including Ms Zaineb al-Khawaja, daughter of activist Abdelhadi al-Khawaja, were detained three hours into their sit-in.<\/p>\n
They were protesting against the arrest of family members and delivered a letter to UN chief Ban Ki Moon calling for their release, it said.<\/p>\n
Bahraini authorities in mid-March crushed a month-long protest movement on the streets led by Shi’ite demonstrators calling for democratic reform in the Sunni-ruled state. — AFP ..source<\/a><\/p>\n